| FEMA Information Disclosure |
| Tuesday, 09 October 2007 | |
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A Federal Appellate Court order is requiring FEMA to provide address information for recipients of disaster assistance to three Florida newspapers who sued seeking the information. FEMA is currently contacting applicants for disaster assistance in the states of Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin to inform them that a recent court order has directed the agency to send the addresses of their disaster-damaged homes to certain newspapers in Florida that sued FEMA to get the information.
In response to the initial Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request, FEMA supplied a breakdown of the types of assistance provided to individuals and households by FEMA application number and state, county and zip code, but refused to produce names and addresses by invoking the Privacy Act and the FOIA exemption for personal privacy. The media organizations appealed and the court ordered the agency to release the addresses, but allowed it to withhold the applicants names. #### Safeguard Properties is the largest privately held field services company in the country. Located in Cleveland, OH and founded in 1990 by Robert Klein, Safeguard has grown from a regional preservation company with a few employees and a handful of contractors performing services in the Midwest, to a national company with over 425 employees. Safeguard is supported by a nationwide network of subcontractors able to perform any requested superintendence, preservation, and maintenance functions, as well as numerous ancillary services in the U.S., the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. |
